20th - 21st March

20^th March

I have borrowed a jet washer from my brother-in-law (he is proving very useful this year!). Yesterday I took it to my dad’s and we blasted the grime from his patio and today I set about doing the same on the strip of concrete at the back of the house. It is amazing how much comes off. I knew it was dirty but the difference now is more than I had thought was possible. I also blasted clean the gutter at the end of the conservatory roof so that the water flows better into the water butt. I have taken off the end piece that has the top of the downward spout. This has some second hand tights (or are they second leg tights?) used as a filter and it has worked well in stopping the fine dirt that gets washed down from the roof going into the water butt. Last spring when I checked, there was a few inches of this dirt at the bottom of the butt, but now it is clear. The trouble is that the filter has now clogged up and only a heavy downpour of rain gives enough volume and force to enable water to get through and into storage. I was defeated by time and light and will have to finish jet washing and re-tighting tomorrow and then – put up the new mini greenhouse! Can I contain my excitement I ask?

21^st March

Well, I did manage to contain myself overnight and I stepped out to find a patch of silty mud at the lowest point of the concrete where water runs off into a small square of soil underneath the large wooden container I placed there last year. That needed blasting which created another puddle still with dirt that needed clearing out. Whilst that was draining away slowly I fixed up a new section of recycled tights (well, the other leg from the pair I was given to use last year) and reconnected the downpipe to the gutter. Still the water had not soaked away so it was time to construct the mini greenhouse. I never usually check and count all constituent parts when I open such packages, but this time, for some reason, I did. Just as well as I was missing 2 base supports. This meant a 40 minute round drive to the shop plus queuing time in a garden centre on the day before Mothering Sunday but at least it was exchanged immediately without any fuss whatsoever. Back home, it took only 20 minutes to put up, the trickiest part being slipping over the tough plastic cover. I cleaned the last part of the concrete area then I was able to place the greenhouse in its designated spot. It stands tall and proud and looking good to the right of the water butt as you look at the house. It already houses the 3 trays of leek seeds plus a container with a sweet potato buried in some compost. The idea with that particular project is that in this environment, the potato will send up some shoots which are then cut off when they are finger length, then potted up to develop further.

This was not the end of the pressure washing though. I continued up the path unveiling more of the original colour of the paving then on to the arrangement of garden items I had lined up on the lawn for a quick clean up. The other bin, a ride-on peddle dumper truck, a plastic 3 wheeled scooter, a bat box that was full of cobwebs and a small plastic climbing block with slide and the patio table. All in all a good job done.

I was hoping to sow some flower seeds now that I have space, but time eluded me. On a more positive note, I now have a 30% germination rate of sweet peas with hopefully more to come.